- [Dr. Zucker] We just walked through the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. And we're now standing in a park just over the catacombs. - [Dr. Harris] There are
many catacombs in Rome. And these were places where the earliest Christians were buried. There are also Jewish
catacombs here in Rome. - [Dr. Zucker] Which were even older. - [Dr. Harris] The Catacombs
of Priscilla occupy about 10 kilometers or more
than five miles of burials. - [Dr. Zucker] This is a
labyrinth of narrow passageways directly below the park that we're in. So if we were to dig down, we would hit the natural
tufa, the stone of Rome, which is a soft material, which is why it was ideal for this kind of excavation. And what's amazing is that the passageways are stacked on top of each other. And the catacomb is in certain places three stories deep. - [Dr. Harris] So here we
are in the north of Rome. And the reason that the
catacomb is located here is that this was the villa of a wealthy Roman woman named Priscilla. And it seems she donated the land as a place where at first
her family would be buried and then eventually the
Christian community. - [Dr. Zucker] By the 5th century a lot of people were buried here, some 40,000 tombs have been located. So imagine walking through
a very dark passageway, a low ceiling, a rough earth and floor. And on either side of the narrow hall, horizontal niches that are just long enough to accommodate a body. Some are quite short
and held the children. And some are longer and
would have held adults. And many of them are
stacked one atop the other. Wealthier people would have excavated a space large enough to
place a sarcophagus in. But most of the tombs are for the poor. And these are simply bodies
that were swaddled in a shroud and placed into these shelf-like slots which were then covered
over with a slab of marble or, for the poor, just
simply tiles of terracotta. All of that would then be covered over with a layer of plaster,
which were often painted. - [Dr. Harris] The larger
rooms have the name cubiculum. Horizontal shelves for burial
are referred to as loculi. And now when we visit, the tombs are all empty and uncovered. - [Dr. Zucker] And we think this is because there was grave robbing and people were hunting for relics, which makes sense because
some of the people that were buried here were martyrs. - [Dr. Harris] Right, they were
killed for being Christians. - [Dr. Zucker] And their remains then had a spiritual importance and power. - [Dr. Harris] Now, there
is a kind of myth or legend around catacombs that
they're a secret place where Christians practiced
their Christianity during times of persecution. But the catacombs are burial places. They were well known to the
Christians in the community. And it's also important to remember that there were episodes of persecution against Christians but also times when Christianity was somewhat tolerated. It's not until 313 when Constantine issues the Edict of Milan that Christianity becomes tolerated within the Roman Empire. - [Dr. Zucker] The catacombs themselves seem to go on endlessly,
passages branching off with tombs as far as the eye can see. But what's especially important is that these are the locations where we find the earliest Christian art. - [Dr. Harris] And art
historians have wondered why is it that Christianity
exists for almost two centuries and we don't have Christian art. Is it because it didn't survive? - [Dr. Zucker] Is it because there wasn't a Christian vocabulary that
had been developed yet? - [Dr. Harris] Is it
because of prohibition against the making of images because of the Second Commandment? It is also true that image making, images of individuals and of gods, was very common in the Roman Empire and Christians may have had a desire to separate themselves from Paganism. And perhaps not making images
was one way of doing that. - [Dr. Zucker] What we do
know is that the first images that we found date from the
3rd century from the 200s. And some of the earliest
art is, in fact, here at the Catacombs of Priscilla. - [Dr. Harris] In fact, what we think is the earliest known representation of the Madonna and Child, we see an image of a woman nursing and another that points
to the mother and child. - [Dr. Zucker] And seems
to be holding a book. - [Dr. Harris] If so, that's
a remarkably early image of a subject that would become so common for more than a millennium
in western art history. - [Dr. Zucker] And so
what we think we see here are numerous scenes that are
among the earliest inventions of Christian iconography,
of Christian symbolism. We find them both painted, and we find them carved. Within the catacombs we
see lots of inscriptions that speak to the people that were buried. And there were also
inscribed Christian symbols. We find the anchor which
speaks to safe harbor. That is a reference to salvation. There are representations of a fish, which is a reference to Christ. - [Dr. Harris] But we also begin to see very specific subject matter that relates to Christian themes of salvation, subjects from both the
Old and New Testament. - [Dr. Zucker] And this especially true in one small cubiculum that
we call the Greek Chapel. Now, this was not a chapel, and it had nothing to do with the Greeks. It has this name simply because we found some Greek letters there. In fact, throughout the catacombs there's both Greek and Latin. - [Dr. Harris] It was decorated
with what arch historians call Roman first style wall painting, that is plaster built up and then painted to imitate marble panels. So there's an attempt to
make this a very rich space. - [Dr. Zucker] This must have been one of the oldest parts of the catacombs because it is adjacent to the
basement of the original house that had been owned by Priscilla. It is lavish, but it is also small. - [Dr. Harris] It would
have held several sarcophagi for members of this family. And there were meals that
we taken in these spaces as part of a memorial to the dead. - [Dr. Zucker] There
are so many scenes here. There are scenes from the Old Testament. There are scenes from the New Testament. - [Dr. Harris] They refer
to divine intervention, to figures who suffered
on account of their faith, including the story
from the Book of Daniel of three youths in the fiery furnace. The story from the Old Testament is that these three youths were asked to worship a Pagan golden
idol and they refused and were sentenced to be
burned alive but were saved. You can see why this was a subject that really appealed to early Christians who at various times were
persecuted for their faith. - [Dr. Zucker] There are
also New Testament scenes. There's the Adoration of the Magi. There's the Resurrection of Lazarus. - [Dr. Harris] These are scenes that refer to the miracles that Christ
performed during his life. And very often in early Christian imagery we have an emphasis on
the teaching of Christ, on the miracles that he performed. And it's really only later that we get the subjects that
we are more familiar with of the crucifixion or the resurrection. - [Dr. Zucker] A good example of the way that the portrayal of a scene has changed is the Sacrifice of Isaac. This is an Old Testament scene. And in this case we only
have a partial view. The bottom portion has been destroyed. But what remains shows
Abraham in the center and Isaac off to the right carrying wood. This is different from
what is normally depicted in later Christian art,
where we generally see Isaac about to be killed by Abraham. Abraham's wrists stayed by an angel. - [Dr. Harris] And you could ask why would the first Christians be painting this Old Testament subject
of Abraham and Isaac? The first Christians looked back to the story of Abraham and
Isaac as a type of Christ, that is, Abraham's willingness
to sacrifice his son foretold, foreshadowed God's willingness to sacrifice his only son, Christ, for the salvation of mankind. - [Dr. Zucker] But one of
the most interesting scenes is a scene that is called
the Breaking of the Bread. And this might at first glance look a bit like a Last Supper. We see a still life, a long table, and seven men seated behind it. So we don't have the
12 apostles and Christ. Simultaneously, there are seven baskets, three on one side and four on
the other, filled with bread. There are fish on the table. And so there seems to be a reference here not only to the Eucharist
but also to the story of the multiplication
of loaves and fishes. - [Dr. Harris] Both are
reference to a miracle that Christ performed during his life, which is typical in early
Christian iconography, but also perhaps a
reference to the liturgy, that is, to the practice of the Eucharist, of the bread and wine being taken as the body and blood of Christ. - [Dr. Zucker] What we're seeing here is the invention of Christian iconography. These are scenes that
have not yet been set, that have not yet been clarified. But looking at that particular image is really quite marvelous, to see the foreshortening of the dishes on the table seen in space. And it reminds us that these are people that would have had access to various sophisticated Roman painting. - [Dr. Harris] The other cubiculum that we wanted to talk about is known as the Cubiculum of the Veil. And this is because there is a depiction of a woman in a veil in this chapel. It's actually the same woman
being depicted three times, in reference to the woman who is deceased, who was buried in this space. On the left we see her being married with a seeded bishop officiating. On the right we see her
seated in a chair nursing. - [Dr. Zucker] And we think that the chair is actually the chair that was
used for childbirth as well. - [Dr. Harris] So we have a
reference to her marriage, to her motherhood, and then we
see her again in the center, this time larger in a pose that
arch historians call arrant. - [Dr. Zucker] This is a pose of prayer meant to represent the
woman in the afterlife, the woman resurrected. This is all enclosed within a lunette at the back of the cubiculum. She is representing the hope of the family that she would enjoy a blessed afterlife. - [Dr. Harris] Her eyes
look upward toward heaven. This is clearly an image
that refers to her salvation and her place in heaven. - [Dr. Zucker] The painting is not in particularly good condition. But we can make out some of the careful articulation of the features of the face. And there's shadow placed under her chin to create a sense of illusionism. - [Dr. Harris] And so even
though her hands are too large for the proportions of her body, her face is represented naturalistically. - [Dr. Zucker] It's important to remember that we are now looking at this painting under electric lights. But it would certainly have been painted in the dim light of oil lanterns. - [Dr. Harris] And in
fact, there are spaces, there are small holes
throughout the catacombs where oil lamps would have been placed. - [Dr. Zucker] But the
largest painting in this room is in this shallow dome of the ceiling. And here in the center we see Christ represented as the Good Shepherd. He's surrounded by three
goats, one over his shoulders. And he's in a stance that is
reminiscent of contrapposto. Clearly, the artist was somebody who had been familiar with Roman sculpture and perhaps Roman painting. Christ is represented young. He has no beard. And beside him are two
trees with doves at the top. So the notion here is that Christ will care for his followers the way that a good shepherd
cares for his flock. - [Dr. Harris] And although
Christ stands naturalistically, he is represented in the center frontal with goats on either side and bushes with the doves on either side. So we have an image
that's very symmetrical. And I think in that way speaks to something transcendent,
something heavenly. - [Dr. Zucker] And we have more symbols that surround the central roundel. - [Dr. Harris] We see peacocks, which are a symbol of eternal life. - [Dr. Zucker] And other
birds that we think are quail, symbols of the earth,
that walk on the earth. - [Dr. Harris] So Christ as in between the earthly and the heavenly. - [Dr. Zucker] And then
in the four pendentives, there are images of doves
with olive branches. So what we're seeing here is
the very first tentative steps in what will become
into the great tradition of Christian art.